1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a connector having coupling guides for establishing connection with a second connector (a connector installed in a memory connector) at a right position.
2. Description of Related Art
A connector installed in an electronic device such as a car navigation system is often connected to another connector of a memory device such as a hard disc. A guide for connecting two connectors at a right position is conventionally provided. An example of a conventional connector having such a guide is shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 attached hereto. A pair of coupling guides 21 is provided in a casing 20 that contains a connector 31 therein. A pair of guiding grooves 12 is provided on a memory device 10 to be coupled with the casing 20. The casing 20 also includes a substrate 30 to which the connector 31 is electrically connected. The memory device 10 has a connector 11 (referred to as a memory-side connector) to be connected to the connector 31. The memory device 10 is coupled to the casing 20 by slidably inserting the coupling guides 21 into the guiding grooves 12. When the memory device 10 is slid to a predetermined position, the connector 31 is electrically connected to the memory-side connector 11.
If a position of the memory-side connector 11 does not match a position of the connector 31, individual terminals of both connectors 11, 31 are not correctly connected to one another. This causes fault electrical connections or imposes an excessive force on soldered positions of the terminals. To cope with this problem, JP-A-9-320684 proposes to provide a connector that includes coupling guides. The coupling guide is composed of a square hole provided in a female connector and a projected rod provided in a male connector. On the other hand, JP-A-8-185924 proposes to provide a separate component for establishing connection of two connectors at a right position.
However, some problems are involved in those proposed devices. In the device proposed by JP-A-9-320684, a position of the square hole relative to the female connector has a certain dimensional deviation. A position of the rod relative to the male connector also includes a certain deviation. Because of these deviations, two connectors may not be coupled correctly at a right position.
Referring to FIG. 2, an amount of a possible positional mismatch between two connectors shown in FIG. 1 will be explained. Dimensions A-F and deviations a-f shown in FIG. 2 show the followings: “A” is a distance between both coupling guides 21 and “a” is a deviation thereof; “B” is a width of the coupling guide 21 and “b” is a deviation thereof; “C” is a distance between an inside surface of the coupling guide 21 and a position of a member fixing the connector 31 on the substrate 30 (such as a screw) and “c” is a deviation thereof; “D” is a distance between the position of the fixing member to a center of the connector 31 and “d” is a deviation thereof; “E” is a distance between bottom surfaces of both guiding grooves 12 and “e” is a deviation thereof; and “F” is a distance between the bottom surface of the guiding groove 12 and a center of the connector 11. All of the deviations a-f affect the position of either one of the connectors 11, 31. If it is assumed that each deviation a-f is 0.2 mm, a maximum positional deviation between two connectors 11, 31 reaches 1.2 mm, which is an accumulated amount of all of the deviations a-f. If a position of the memory-side connector 11 relative to the connector 31 cannot be adjusted to cover an actual positional deviation between two connectors, two connectors may not be correctly connected.
On the other hand, in the device proposed by JP-A-8-185924, a guiding member for coupling connectors at a right position is provided separately from the connectors. Therefore, there is a possibility that connectors may not be coupled to each other because of excessive dimensional deviations of components. In addition, the device becomes expensive because the separate guiding member has to be provided.